Late-night hosts are still in a bind. The same five funny white guys who refereed Trump versus Biden in 2020 were behind their desks on September 10 for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s presidential debate. Even Jon Stewart, who got to sit out 2016 while Trevor Noah hosted The Daily Show, isn’t exactly new to political comedy. And how can anything be funnier than the real phrase “Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison?” But on the other hand, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Stewart himself have been covering Trump for 12 years, so they should be experts — at least in doing the voice.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon leaned hard on his Trump impression to cover the debate. His monologue was pretaped, which meant he could only perform jokes based on already known material as opposed to referencing the facts of the debate like Colbert, Kimmel, and Stewart could. After mentioning Trump’s diminishing lead in Florida, Fallon impersonated the former president, saying, “Come on, Florida, I thought you matched my freak.” Then he pivoted from the debate and did a bit featuring a parody of the 2011 band LMFAO. He’s so Obamacore.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Unlike Fallon, Stephen Colbert performed his monologue live, which meant he got to reference specific moments in the debate, and he used his latitude to take direct shots at Trump. “Harris got under his skin like she was stuffing in butter and rosemary,” he said. Overall, Colbert continued with his general approach to politics, which is to be the best version of the NPR dad.
Late Night With Seth Meyers
Fallon’s NBC counterpart Seth Meyers took a characteristically “Weekend Update” approach and kept it short and sweet, under four minutes. “Kamala Harris reportedly prepared by debating an adviser playing former president Donald Trump wearing a boxy suit, so thanks to David Byrne for his service to our country,” Meyers said. We’re hoping he takes another shot at covering the debate later in the week because we’d like to see the graphics team put together a pic of the aforementioned imprisoned transgender illegal alien.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
ABC News hosted the debate, so ABC’s sole late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, had a lot of pressure. Luckily for him, his show is famously “Live!” Kimmel largely played the monologue with a lighthearted smarminess with one hand in his pocket the whole time. “Dick Cheney isn’t voting for Kamala Harris because he agrees with her on the issues,” Kimmel said, when discussing how the election is not about policy. “He’s voting for her because there’s a rhinoceros charging and she has the tranquilizer gun.”
The Daily Show (Jon Stewart)
While the fate of The Daily Show continues to hang in the balance, Jon Stewart is taking over Monday nights and doing a bang-up job (he got the most viewership out of any of these clips on YouTube, at least). Stewart managed to get some bipartisan digs in as well. In response to both candidates’ nonanswers to the first question, he celebrated. “We’re back; America’s back,” he shouted. “You ask ’em a question, they’re gonna turn the tide and answer whatever they wanna answer.” It just makes his eventual turn toward Harris’s side better. “Holy shit, she crushed it,” he whispered.
